The Promise Used for This Life

‘Godliness is profitable unto all thinrs, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.*’ — 1 Tim. iv. 8.

SORT of affectation prevents some Christians from treating religion as if its sphere lay among the common places of daily life. It is to them transcendental and dreamy; rather a creation of pious fiction than a matter of fact. They believe in God, after a fashion, for things spiritual, and for the life which is to be; but they totally forget that true godliness hath the promise of the life which now is, as well as of that which is to come. To them it would seem almost a profanation to pray about the small matters of which daily life is made up. Perhaps they will be startled if I venture to suggest that this should make them question the reality of their faith. If it cannot bring them help in little troubles of life, will it support them in the greater trials of death? If it cannot profit them as to food and raiment, what can it do for them as to the immortal spirit?

In the life of Abraham we perceive that his faith had to do with all the events of his earthly pilgrimage; it was connected with his removals from one country to another, with the separation of a nephew om his camp, with fighting against invaders, and pecially with the birth of the long-promised son. o part of the patriarch’s life was outside the circle f his faith in God. Towards the close of his life it is said, “and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things,” which includes temporals as well as spirituals. In Jacob’s case the Lord promised him tread to eat, and raiment to put on, and the bringing of him to his father’s house in peace; and all these things are of a temporal and earthly character. Assuredly these first believers did not spirit away the present blessing of the covenant, or regard it as an airy, mystical matter to believe in God. One is struck with the want of any line of demarcation between secular and sacred in their lives; they journeyed as pilgrims, fought like Crusaders, ate and drank like saints, lived as priests, aod spake as prophets. Their life was their religion, and their religion was their life. They trusted God, not merely about certain things of higher import, but about everything, and hence, even a servant from one of their houses, when he was sent on an errand, prayed, “O Lord God of my master, prosper the way which I go!” This was genuine faith, and it is ours to imitate it, and no longer to allow the substance of the promise, and of the life of faith, to evaporate in mere sentimental and visionary fancies. If trust in God is good for anything, it is good for everything within the line of the promise, and it is certain that the life which now is lies within that region.

Let my reader observe and practically use such words of God as these, — “Ye shall serve the Lc^^ your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and tljy water; and I will take sickness away from tk’’^^ midst of thee” (Ex. xxiii. 25). “Trust in the loxC^^’ and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, an verily thou shalt be fed” (Ps. xxxvii. 3). “Surel)* — he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee” (Ps. xci. 3-7). “He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee” (Job V. 19). “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure” (Is. xxxiii. 15, 16). For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Ps. lxxxiv. Ii). “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord” (Is. liv. 17). Our Saviour intended faith to be our quietus cronceming daily cares, or he would not have said, **Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; xior yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is xiot the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?** (Matt. vi. 25, 26.) What else but the exercise of faith concerning temporal things could he have meant when he used the following language? — “And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after; and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things*’ (Luke xii, 29, 30).

Paul meant the same when he wrote, “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus’* (Phil. IV. 6, 7).

He who is gone to prepare heaven for us will not leave us without provision for the journey thither. God does not give us heaven as the Pope gave England to the Spanish King — if he could get it: but he makes the road sure, as well as the end. out

Now, our earthly necessities are as real as,

...,,, - ord

spiritual ones, and we may rest sure that the

will supply them. He will send us those suppL “^ in the way of promise, prayer, and faith, and make them a means of education for us. K^”^^? will fit us for Canaan by the experience of tl^^^ wilderness.

To suppose that temporal things are too little “for our condescending God, is to forget that h^” observes the flight of sparrows, and counts th hairs of his people’s heads. Besides, everything ij so little to him, that, if he does not care for the little, he cares for nothing. Who is to divide affairs by size or weight? The turning-point of history may be a minute circumstance. Blessed is the man to whom nothing is too small for God; for certainly nothing is too small to cause us sorrow, or to involve us in peril. A man of God once lost a key: he prayed about it, and found it. It was reported of him as a strange circumstance. Indeed, it was nothing unusual: some of us pray about everything, and tremble lest the infinitesimal things should not be sanctified by the word of God and prayer. It is not the including of trifles which is any trouble to our consciences, but the omission of them. We are assured that, when our Lord gave his angels charge to guard our feet from stones in the way, he placed all the details of our life under heavenly care, and we are glad to commit all things to his keeping.

It is one of the abiding miracles of the present dispensation that in Christ we have continual peace under al trials, and through him we have power in prayer to obtain from the Lord all things necessary for this life and godliness. It has been the -writer’s lot to test the Lord hundreds of times about temporal needs, being driven thereto by the care of orphans and students. Prayer has many, many times brought opportune supplies,and cleared a-way serious difficulties. I know that faith can fill a, purse, provide a meal, change a hard heart, procure a site for a building, heal sickness, quiet insubordination, and stay an epidemic. Like money in the worldling’s hand, faith in the hand of the man of God “answereth all things.” All things in heaven, and earth, and under the earth, answer to the command of prayer. Faith is not to be imitated by a quack, nor simulated by a hypocrite; but where it is real, and can grasp a divine promise with firm grip, it is a great wonder-worker. How I wish that my reader would sp believe in God as to lean upon him in all the concerns of this life! This would lead him into a new world, and bring to him such confirmatory evidence as to the truth of our holy faith that he would laugh skeptics to scorn. Child-like faith in God provides sincere hearts with a practical prudence, which I am inclined to call — sanctified common-sense. The simple-minded believer, though laughed at as an idiot, has a wisdom about him which cometh from above, and effectually baffles the cunning of the wicked. Nothing puzzles a malicious enemy like the straightforward unguardedness of an out-and-out believer.

He that believes his God is not afraid of evil tidings, for his heart has found a calm fixi trusting in the Lord. In a thousand ways faith sweetens, enlarges, and enriches life. Try dear reader, and see if it does not yield you immeasurable wealth of blessedness! It will n save you from trouble, for the promise is, “The things I have spoken unto you tlfat in me ye mig have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world’ (John xvi. 33): but it will cause you to glory t tribulations also,“knowing that tribulation workct patience; and patience,experience; and experience,, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. v. 3-5).

My faith not only flies to heaven,

But walks with God below;
To me are all things daily given,

While passing to and fro.

The promise speaks of worlds above.

But not of these alone;
It feeds and clothes me now with love.

And makes this world my own.

I trust the Lord, and he replies,

In things both great and small;
He honors faith with prompt supplies;

Faith honors Mm in all.

itv
his

it,
au

-ise